BeFuddledinMn

Great job Dave and thank you and Claude for sharing and educating the forum on the possibilities available. After following your efforts here on the impressive Super MWM design, and Claude’s impressive Quarter Pie design, I’ve noticed that both designs could be cost efficiently built using 5’x5’ Baltic birch sheets for the same 60”x60” x 21” footprint (Super MWM vs Super Quarter Pie). I have been seriously considering building Claude’s Super Quarter Pie, but given the same dimensions and materials, if someone had the room for that 60”x60”x21” footprint, which one should they build? Obviously, the Super MWM goes lower, but are there advantages to both in the same footprint?

Always brilliant, eloquent, knowledgeable and a gentleman. God bless. Thoughts and prayers go out for Gil’s recovery.

Dean is correct and rather than running in circles comparing apples and oranges, there’s a lot of past research and analysis available on this forum answering most of the questions in this thread. As far as the thread goes, there are two different quick tricks on the cheap to get the aa to “live curve” more like an a/4500, otherwise you may as well start from scratch, selecting your tweeter and midrange before your network. Just my experience after owning, building and live test curving a lot of networks, tweeters, mids, etc.

Yes, and that the AA tweeter filter is near full power at approx 5000hz, not 6000hz.

There is also another option to move toward a 4500hz crossover point already done by Klipsch on the aa network: for a short time, Klipsch employed a revised aa network that inserted a .35mh inductor in the positive output after the autoformer to the squawker as a band pass filter. I’ve never measured this one, but Klipsch used it and must have found it helpful in achieving a ~5000hz crossover (published or not) with the aa tweeter filter. Again, FWIW In terms of network differences, I think Dean has it right; Klipsch was all over the road on midrange attenuation (from 3,4 and 6db down) for many years with the LaScala while maintains a 6000hz crossover point and 105db sensitivity. Voicing differences? Sure, but which is “better” is all personal taste and room dynamics imho.

One alternative may be to incorporate the old notch filer idea on the “aa” network. Measurements from ALK years ago demonstrated that the aa tweeter filter was “all in” at 5000hz, not 6000hz, albeit with a 1 or 2db output reduction from an “a” network. The old Max Potter notch filter, with 3uf capacitor and .1mh inductor, wired in parallel on the positive side of the midrange - after the autoformer, will alleviate the 8-9k midrange spike on the single plug k56 AND reduce the total midrange db output by about -1db from perhaps 2-3k onward. With a first order mid, this should generate an approximate acoustical crossover at ~ 5k. This may deliver a middle ground acoustical cross between an a/4500 (which suppresses the midrange 1-3 db further and through a greater range) and the “aa”, and without a tweeter change. Can you hear a change? Maybe. FWIW.

Still available.

Still available, lower price. $125, plus shipping.

Still available.

SOLD

Just one left. $50 plus shipping.

I have a matched pair of Alnico k-77 tweeters for sale. Serial numbers pretty close to each other and I believe were installed in a LaScala together. They measure 5.3 and 5.9 ohms on the meter and may be the original diaphragms, or older original replacements. Sound good, with original Klipsch wires. Nice condition with slight oxidation on the magnet cases. SOLD

PM sent.

I always appreciated Dennis (RIP), his stellar contributions to this forum, and his effortless intellect. His LaScala mod (and associated tutorial) was and is brilliant in my opinion. Of course, like all of the possibilities with speakers, unique needs usually dictate best course. Having said that, I’d love to see full frequency response and distortion measurements across a Klipsch LS5 LaScala, a DJK modified LaScala and Claude’s impressive quarter pie. We can all add a subwoofer later - or buy the new Klipsch Jubilee, but I’m guessing there is a sizeable crowd that doesn’t find that convenient, for whatever reason.

It’s been over a year, just curious if anyone has done measurements on these horn subwoofer options?

Sold

Sold.

I have one very nice metal k400 horn for sale. $90, plus shipping.

Sold

One pair of original Klipsch Forte II tweeters for sale. One is excellent with 8.6 ohm reading, the other has a blown diaphragm. Both cosmetically excellent. $75 for the pair plus shipping.

I have a spare set of original Klipsch Forte II tractrix midrange horns and drivers, model k-61. These are in excellent condition and the drivers read 11.4 and 11.6 ohms respectively. SOLD

Bump

Bump

Chris, outstanding work and contribution, as always. As an aside, I’m very impressed by Roy Delgado’s work on furthering Paul’s legacy on the entire heritage line. A real renaissance.

Having spent some time on this issue myself, I’ll share my two cents: Seeking the Klipschorn nirvana in the bass department is all a matter of your time, effort and money - for relatively small differences. And the performance differences between woofers are highly “personal preference” based, with both the slot size and woofer crossover design key to optimization. Having tried and measured a lot of woofers, crossovers and slot sizes in the Klipschorn, my personal preference is for the original Stephens or EV 15wk, using an ak-3 like 2nd order woofer crossover. Second choice would be either woofer with a tailored first order inductor. Third choice, and nearly as satisfying to me, would be the Crites cast woofer (and yes, Bob Crites knows what he’s doing) with either the 3” or 6” slot and proper woofer crossover. There are differences in the 100 - 500hz range, which you can tailor to your liking. Keep in mind that those old, original woofers from the 50’s are fragile - shipping is risky, they don’t take much power (abuse), and once damaged, they’re basically done. Today I run older 6” slot Klipschorns with Both EV wk15’s and Crites cast woofers. Only a very few visitors can distinguish any difference at all - good or bad. Enjoy the hobby!